REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN TELEPHONE CALL TO
THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

The Oval Office

11:24 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: James Lee, how are you?

MR. WITT: I'm fine, sir. We have a lot of state directors
in the room, probably about 200 people here, and we're very appreciative
for you to call in.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm delighted to do it, and I wish I
were there with you.

MR. WITT: We do, too. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: You haven't seen Washington today -- it
just depends -- I wish I were there with you even more than you wish I
were there. (Laughter.)

Let me begin by saying that I can imagine that for many of
you, having the chance to come to the conference is a welcome relief
from being out there on the front lines of disasters in your home
states. This has been a tough, a cold, a wet, even a miserable winter
for people in a lot of places and many of you are still in response or
early recovery from the floods and the blizzards.

We also, as I'm sure you know, have these terrible fires in
some parts of our country. We've had more than three times as many
disasters declared in the first six weeks of this year than in this same
period in the past 20 years.

I was recently in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and
Pennsylvania to see the devastation, the ruined homes, the businesses,
as a result of the recent flooding. And I got a chance to talk with
people who have lost their homes and their belongings and literally have
to start all over again. I couldn't have known it when I became
President, but I suppose that I've seen the widest array of natural
disasters, along with James Lee Witt, in the last three years as in any
period -- comparable period -- in modern history. We had the great
Midwest flood of '93, the Northridge earthquake, the Oklahoma City
bombing, Hurricanes Opal and Marilyn, dozens of floods and tornadoes,
and of course, these fires.

I did know, though, when I became President that this was
an important part of my job. When I became President I promised myself,
based on my own experience as a governor and my own frustrations with
FEMA, that I would improve the nation's response to disasters. For many
years FEMA had been regarded almost universally as an agency not up to
the job, and I'm very proud that under James Lee Witt's management and
with all of your help, FEMA is now a model disaster relief agency, and
in some corners, thought to be by far the most successful part of the
federal government today. That is a breathtaking turnaround in just
three years.

If I could just give one example: It used to take a month
or more for many people to begin receiving relief, and now people can
call into a 1-800 number and see those checks arrive within days.

I am very pleased with the progress that's been made. I
also am more impressed than ever before about the importance, the
integral importance of FEMA to the nation's business. It now relates to
the Transportation Department, the Department of Health and Human
Services, the Labor Department, the Energy Department, right across the
line because of all of us having to work with James Lee in the dealing
with disasters.

So today it's a pleasure for me to announce to all of you
that I am extending Cabinet membership for the first time in history to
FEMA and to James Lee Witt. (Applause.)

MR. WITT: Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me also say that I think all of know
that in dealing with these disasters, the most important thing is the
spirit of the people. I'll never forget when James Lee and I were in
Woodland, Washington, a few days ago -- we came upon a 70-year-old man,
and he and his wife had lost everything in the flood. He had even lost
his hearing aid. And he looked at me and he said, well, I'm 70 years
old and I've never had a President shake hands with me before -- it was
nearly worth losing my home to do that at my age. (Laughter.)

And I thought to myself I wished that spirit could kind of
somehow capture America. And at the end of my visit with this man he
said to me how grateful he was for the help he'd received, how grateful
he was for everyone treating him as they had. And then he said, it's
just too bad that we don't behave this way toward each other all the
time. And I think that's an important lesson that we could take out of
the work that FEMA and all of you done. The teamwork, the spirit of
can-do, the openness to doing what has to be done, the total lack of
cynicism that you see in the midst of a disaster and taking care of its
aftermath -- that's really what this country needs all day, every day.
When America works together we never lose; and if we don't, we beat
ourselves.

So I want to say again to all of you how grateful I am to
you. I know the American people look to you, your governors, to James
Lee and to me when they need us in these disasters. I know that they
rise to the challenges they rarely do on a daily basis when a disaster
occurs. And I just want to tell you how grateful I am to you for your
public service and how I want to encourage you to continue to imbue the
spirit of service that you demonstrate in times of disasters every day,
every week, all year long.

Congratulations for all the good work you do. Have a
successful conference, and let's hope and pray that for the rest of this
year you won't have quite so much to do as you have in the beginning.
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)